top of page

ARTICLE 1

WE MUST RETHINK FOOD AND GASTRONOMY IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY

 

It may seem strange to claim that we should talk more about our food. Food is the focal point of endless streaks of television programs. During friend’s dinner we talk about new recipes while eating the old ones. You can even go to fermentation at evening school.

Yet our food calls for far more attention than it gets if you look at it in the bigger picture. As a matter of fact, the way we humans provide food today simply doesn't last long. Firstly, we managed to create a food system that overproduces food without everyone getting enough to eat. But even more fundamentally, our methods to obtain food are simply unsustainable and impossible scale up in a future, with a human population ever growing. Put in other words, when the population escalates, and more people eventually can afford to ‘eat better’, we cannot continue to eat the way we do right now.


THE TRUTH ABOUT AGRICULTURE

You may have heard this before, but todays agriculture, the cultivation of food and goods through farming, is one of the main reasons behind climate changes and the loss of biodiversity. Let’s have a look at some of the hard facts.

 

CO2 and FRESH WATER

Industrial agriculture is now so big, that its greenhouse gas emission is the same as all cars, trains, ships, busses and planets combined. It’s a carbon bomb ticking louder and louder. Furthermore, a quarter of the world’s population lives in countries where the pressure on freshwater resources is described as extreme, and the main reason is, again, agriculture. Today, food production accounts for more than two-thirds of all the fresh water, we use.

 

DEFORESTATION

Agricultural productions accounts for 80% of all deforestation across the globe – the land we all need to suck greenhouse gases out of the air. Cutting trees both adds CO2 to the air and removes the ability to absorb the existing. Especially rainforests are disappearing in an alarming rate. Troublingly, we are losing nearly 4,500 acres of rainforest every hour, and now 17% of the Amazonian rainforest has already been destroyed. But we’re not just talking about forest. Grasslands, wetlands and other ecosystems are also quickly being turned into massive fields and industrial farms.  

 

THE BASQUE CULINARY CENTER

In the Basque Country a lot of initiatives and actions are taken to tackle pressing challenges concerning the food industry. The Basque Culinary Center (BBC), a “pioneering academic institution worldwide” created by eight of the top Basque chefs along with Mondragon University, are one of the leading figures.  They are creating the big changes within the Basque Country and worldwide, and what they do best is research and innovation. 

 

As Joxe Mari Aizega, Director General of the Basque Culinary Center points out,
“ We must rethink gastronomy in a sustainable way, and use it as another tool to combat climate change, improve people’s health and social awareness, and transform gastronomy processes and practices to reduce their environmental impacts. As far is the BBC is concerned, it is essential to promote sustainable eating habits that affect the entire current value chain. We understand sustainable development as an opportunity for creativity and innovation. ” 

 

This year BCC launched a Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development in 2020, which consists of 82 actions and measures that will be implemented over the next four years. The center of Research and Innovation, called BccInnovation, plays a key role in this Strategic Plan. They contribute with research and generate knowledge applied to gastronomy and all those involved in the food value chain and the society as a whole. 

 

We have chosen two interesting and very specific actions, you should know about right now: 

​

#PROEJCT 1 GASTRO MICRO

How can we by-product up-cycle? Especially by-products generated in the catering industry, like fruits and vegetables? This is the main focus in this project. BccInnovation tries to look at by-products in a different light. Instead of looking at it as garbage, which is the most normal, they think it's important to consider by-products as “new ingredients”.  And more specific, "new ingrediens" that can be used to develop innovative and high added value products.
 

If you don’t know what a by-product is, it is the secondary product derived from a production process, and today byproducts and food waste have a big impact on the environmental sector. Therefore, it is important to identifying the by-products with high gastronomic potential and start using the them. So if we and all the restaurants will make some specific sustainable actions, a way to do it is to identify, gain knowledge and develop products from by-products. At least if you ask BccInnovation - and hopefully they will soon have som exiting indsigts and news within this field.

 

#PROEJCT 2 GASTROVALOCAL

Is it important to rethink the value of traditional and rarely used vegetable species? If you ask BccInnovation, the answer is yes. In this project they are studying a variety of agricultural products that have an important cultural background in the Basque Country, but is rarely used for cooking nowadays.
 

The reason why, is because it’s important to revalue the traditional species within the country, that originally favors biodiversity and contribute to avoid genetic erosion. More biodiversity means more fresh air, fresh water and healthy soil.

 

So if vi will fight climate changes, one specifik way of doing this is to implement more traditional species in our food, that can help the biodiversity. At least if you ask BccInnovation - and let's see what interesting and sustainable agricultural products they will soon present for us here in the Basque Country!


Read about more projects here: 

https://innovation.bculinary.com/en/portfolio/ 

​

​

​

ARTICLE 2

TOO GOOD TO GO SAVES THE PLANET ONE MEAL AT A TIME 

​

Too Good To Go has helped saving more than 50 million meals globally and dreams of a planet without food waste. We have spoken to the Press Officer and Waste Warrior of their Spanish market, Carlos García.

​

Every year we waste around 1.3 billion tons of food, with a third of it being produced for human consumption. Food waste contributes roughly 8 % of total greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Too Good To Go is the world’s leading platform for reducing food waste, and they have globally saved more than 50 million meals now, 4,5 years after saving their first meal in Copenhagen back in 2016. They have avoided the equivalent of more than 148.000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of 34.000 vehicles driven for one year.

​

Since launching Too Good To Go (TGTG)  in Spain in 2018, they have helped fighting food waste in the Basque country. Today they are already collaborating with more than 80 food business in Bilbao and has saved more than 38,000 meals in the city.

​

​

Carlos García is very glad to see all the positive response they have gotten in their fight against food waste:

​

​

“The growth of Too Good To Go in these two years has been incredible. Right now in Spain we have a community of 2 million users and we are already helping more than 5000 businesses in their fight against food waste where we have managed to avoid the waste of more than 1.7 million meals. The evolution and the welcome from users and shops are being so positive. In July of this year, we celebrated that we reached the first million meals saved after almost two years, and only 5 months later of this great milestone we have already saved 700,000 more meals. We hope to end 2020 having saved more than 2 million meals,” he says.
 

​

Helping out businesses through tough times


The pandemic has forced many businesses within the food industry to close, and the covid-19 makes it difficult for many businesses to calculate their food surpluses properly.

Therefore TGTG are helping these businesses in the best way they can, fighting the food waste, and reduce the economic impact the covid-19 has brought for the business. During the lockdown, they also launched their non-profit projects called ‘WeCare’ for businesses that were still open, giving them the opportunity to sell boxes with basic food for 7 days through the app, giving them the chance to reach more people and earn more income during this time:

 

​

“Now, with the new normality, we know that it is a time of great uncertainty. Every day is different and many businesses cannot calculate their surpluses properly. We are helping these businesses through our app, finding a solution to avoid food waste, and reduce the economic impact,” García explains.

​

​

​

On a mission for a better world


Too Good To Go’s mission for the Basque Country is the same as for the rest of Spain and the other countries they are operating in: To fight food waste and inspire and empower everyone in this mission.

And it looks like they are doing a pretty job in doing so, having a community of 28 million users, more than 60,000 food businesses and just recently launched in USA as well.

 

However, they still haven’t reached their goal yet:

​

​

“Our aim is to add more food businesses to our movement, continue launching campaigns to raise awareness in society, and work with the different local governments to help stop food waste. (…)Obviously, in the long term we dream of a planet without food waste, and to achieve this we will continue to work hard to ensure that no food is wasted.”

​

- Carlos García, Press Officer, Spain

​

​

​

​

ARTICLE 3

GREEN REVOLUTION AND FOOD DESIGN

​

People recognize the significance of the computer revolution that shaped our informational reality. Some futurists argue that we are currently in the stage of artificial intelligence and the internet of things revolution.

​

That all might be true, but what kind of revolution do you think is coming next?

​

Enthusiasts and at the same time high professionals of the gastronomy sphere were gathered on the 19th and 20th of November in the online conference hosted by the Basque Culinary Center. Speakers represented different countries and covered a variety of topics but throughout the whole conference, we could detect an ongoing idea of raising a totally new perspective on food and food production that would change relations between humans, food, and Earth. 

​

Elsa Yaranzo, a food designer from Barcelona and a panelist at the conference, is convinced that “food should not be a final goal, food should be a tool”. The population of the Earth is constantly growing and such problems as overpopulation and scarcity of resources reveal more and more as a true threat. It is a huge shared responsibility of chefs, scientists, sociologists, and consumers to cope with the situation and come up with new decisions. As Elsa said: “all need to contribute with new solutions, new systems, new materials, new rituals, new experiences, and food design and new ecosystem”. 

​

Does it not sound to you like we are on the edge of some big and great changes? The panelists of the conference, including Elsa, certainly agree with the idea that the Green Revolution is coming. It will touch and change every sphere of our life and first of all, it's gonna touch our food habits and the way we think about food. We need to start changing our consumption and feeding habits on all layers of society. Elsa Yaranzo said that in order to build this new world we must “feed this revolution with design”. Food design will help us bring solutions for this new paradigm and social transformations.

​

After such inspiring ideas, it's time to get to know what a food design actually is. It is a pretty broad concept that defines all processes connected to studying, researching, and creating new products related to gastronomy. During her presentation, Elsa gave a perfect and simple example: whenever people thought of putting a stick into ice cream with the purpose to prevent children from making their hands dirty - it was an act of food design. 

​

Today food designers have way more ambitious goals than keeping hands clean. Food designers are in a search of materials and shapes that will give a new sense to the food we eat. They are about to change the way of thinking and perception of food.  

     

Elsa Yaranzo emphasized the necessity of intense attention to the research of new materials that could replace traditional ones used for preparing food and derivative products, for example like packages. The goal of the global food design community is to make food tastier while the planet and humanity healthier. There are hundreds of companies working on the creation of lab-produced meat in order to reduce animal suffering, make our BBQ diner more ethical, and our air cleaner from CO2. Other companies try to find a solution to the enormous amount of waste we create while cooking. Some are experimenting with coffee waste and creating new technologies for its usage and some are trying to produce new packaging material out of biopolymers in the fish scales. A number of companies are experimenting with the usage of insects for creating albumen-rich and sustainable food. 

 

Elsa and her colleagues are convinced that a green revolution is approaching. It requires actions and contribution from the whole gastronomic community and from the usual consumer. However, food designers hold their unique place in introducing the change. Their responsibility is to invent new food habits and adjust them to mass consumption.

​

bottom of page